


A Father's Love

by Edollhouse



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied Relationships, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 19:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3703181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edollhouse/pseuds/Edollhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Spoilers to 3x07] When Aethelwulf is rudely awakened in the middle of the night and dragged before Queen Kwenthrith he does his best to be a worthy son to the King of Wessex, the strategic political genius, and makes some life changing decisions in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Father's Love

As he stands there in his nightdress next to the Bishop, how can he do anything else but laugh? He can’t believe this princess, ‘queen’ as she calls herself. Did she really believe that his father would ever let this be her kingdom to rule? Does she really believe that one can threaten his father to obedience? He is standing before her unarmed, only accompanied by an old man, and still he has more power than she has sitting on her throne surrounded by her armed guards.

His father would never admit a weakness. On the contrary, he likes to flaunt how untouchable he is, but that is a game this princess will never learn. In a way Aethelwulf does not blame her for thinking herself to have the upper hand, having the King of Wessex’s only son as hostage, but his father has now two boys who he acknowledges as grandsons and plans to rule for many years to come. If he, Aethelwulf, dies now, his father would still consider his line secured. 

Another princess might have taunted him for not having his father care more about him than that he can be sacrificed. However, Kwenthrith knows nothing about family love and can all too well imagine how one can sacrifice even the closest family to get ahead. If he and the Bishop are killed, his father will have the perfect excuse to attack and crush her, and they both know the King is just waiting for a good excuse. 

Aethelwulf does not know how well informed the Princess is, but if she has heard about recent events, he understands if she has come to doubt his father’s love for him. Ironically it is the idea that his father does not love him that now protects him. If Kwenthrith believes that his father would be willing to sacrifice him, she won’t kill him, because he is still son to the King of Wessex and no one would blame a father for avenging his only child. When he tells her, he can see that though she might not understand family love, she is politically smart enough to see reason.

He remembers the King’s constant words that the most valuable hostage is the safest hostage and though it might have seemed odd to some, it always made perfect sense to Aethelwulf why his father insisted that the Bishop would accompany him. As Prince of Wessex he is always in danger, whether it is a sword in the battlefield or poison in a cup, but right now together with the old man, he is as safe as he possibly could be.

It is true that he sometimes questions whether his father can really love anyone, even him. His father is selfish and ruthless, but he has taught his son well. Aethelwulf will be the dutiful obedient son even when his father sends him to stare into the eyes of death, heed his King’s every command, putting it even before the Church and the words of the Bishop. When his father made it clear that Athelstan was a friend, he decided to try and treat the man as a friend, even though he suspected the truth from the very beginning. When his father told him to fight with the pagans, he fought with them side-by-side, listened to Ragnar’s commands and even learned some of their language to offer friendship. Still he felt such relief when his father finally ordered him to get rid of them.

However, being raised as the only son to the great king has not only been to be taught obedience, it has also been to be taught power and entitlement. Therefore Aethelwulf has always felt himself to be invulnerable, whether he has been the Northmen’s hostage, fought pagans and Christians in open battle, or now being threatened with two swords before a lunatic princess. Nothing can touch him simply because his father won’t allow it. And now his father has arranged the situation so that the situation cannot touch him.

Not even Kwenthrith presenting the child she claims to be the son of Ragnar makes him flinch. He doesn’t for a second believe that the poor child is either Kwenthrith’s or Ragnar’s, just as firmly as he believes that Judith’s latest child is the product of her and Athelstan’s lust and not divine intervention. His father’s education makes him recognize the child for what it really is, an ill-attempted scheme to threaten Wessex with the Northmen they have already neutralized. Despite her efforts, despite having him as a hostage, the puppet-princess has no real power and therefore he can push against the swords that are trying to hold him back and scream his charges and demands without ever having to really fear for his life.

He makes a silent vow that if he survives this, as he is sure he will, he will go back to Wessex and be as much of a father to Alfred as he is to his legitimate son. After all, in what way would the little boy have any more guilt than the poor child next to Kwenthrith? Is he not innocent and as much deserving of Athelwulf's protection as any other Christian child in his father’s kingdom, perhaps even more so because of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his birth.

He will also do his best to be a good husband to Judith, as he knows he ought to be. The anger is still there, along with the hate and the blame, but she is his wife and she has suffered. Her very appearance, whether it is with the carefully arranged hair or the visible scar, will forever be a reminder of her guilt and penance. Trying to forget his own pain for a while, he must ask if she hasn’t been sufficiently punished, and there is more to come if his father’s indication is anything to go by. Judith might not be overly fond of her father, but Aelle is still her father, and she has a mother and a little brother who she loves dearly. Despite his father’s superficial concern for Judith’s feelings, despite that he is sure his father would never sacrifice his own son, he doubts the strategic King will think twice before sacrificing Judith’s mother and brother along with her father if that is what it will take to conquer Northumbria. 

It is not that his father doesn’t have a heart, and he has clearly taken to his daughter-in-law since Athelstan left, since Alfred was born. He is not sure what is going on, but it is painfully clear that his father looks at Judith with the same fascination he looked at Athelstan, always has her nearby just as he had Athelstan. Aethelwulf just hopes that Judith knows that his father will only love her as long as it is convenient, that she knows better than to trust it. Her trust in him has been severally damaged, perhaps rightfully so, but as his wife, she will always have his love, even when he hates her. He hopes she knows that too and if she doesn’t, he hopes that when he returns to Wessex, it will not be too late to save her.


End file.
